Question Meme

How this works: Comment with your favourite colour and I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can get to know you better. Update your journal with the answers to the questions. Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions.

My questions from eanor:1. What's your favourite Cabin Pressure episode? (Have to ask that, too! ^^)2. What's your favourite work by Neil Gaiman?3. Which is your favourite Sherlock Holmes adaptation / pastiche?4. Which historical figure would you like the Doctor to meet / which historical era would you like to see him travel to? (Historical can mean contemporary, too, if you wish.)5. If you could change one thing about one fandom you are currently in or would like to be in, what would it be?

My Answers:1. What's your favourite Cabin Pressure episode? (Have to ask that, too! ^^)Johannesburg. Easily. No contest.My next five before the new season were Abu Dhabi, Douz, Limerick, Ottery St. Mary, and Paris and the exact ordering of them would depend on the day. I haven't decided on the new stuff for sure yet but I can see any of Uskerty, Vaduz, or Wokingham moving up and probably bouncing out Abu Dhabi and / or Douz after a few more listens.

2. What's your favourite work by Neil Gaiman? Good Omens. Another easy call. I love several of his short stories almost as much, but not quite.

3. Which is your favourite Sherlock Holmes adaptation / pastiche? Oh, jeepers. I don't know. I could never pick one. I've loved many of the various film and radio adaptations, but I think I like the pastiches and playing with it more than straight adaptations of the original canon so I'll stick with that. Of the three current big ones, I haven't seen Elementary. I like both the Downey, Jr. films and the BBC show (obviously), the BBC show more than the films, but I don't think either of them would be my all-time favorite. If the BBC show gets another great season or two, maybe, but so far I have serious problems with 2 out of the 6 episodes and that's not quite a high enough percentage of great to problematic. In some ways I want to say the Disney animated film The Great Mouse Detective because it is so much fun, plays so well with both the original canon and the very idea of Holmesian pastiches, and is what really started me on my love of all things Sherlock, even though I'm pretty sure I saw Sherlock Hemlock on Sesame Street first. But giving that answer just feels like it is more childhood sentimentality than an actual answer. Hmmm... If I were to fully indulge my silly side I'd say The Hound of Baskervilles radio play by John Nicholson and Steven Canny. It is a completely hilarious comedic take on the idea of Holmes that explicitly plays with much of the fandom (Holmes/Watson) and the problems in the originals (seriously, Watson has lived with Holmes for years and still can't deduce anything and can't even recognize Holmes in a disguise?). Also, I absolutely love Michael Chabon's novella The Final Solution but it is a highly problematic work that I fully acknowledge I love despite its flaws. When I read it, I could totally see some of the things I most loved making me very mad if I'd been in just a slightly different mood. And there's always the first few seasons of House, MD for a completely different take on the same character and the same ideas. I am so indecisive here after proclaiming the previous two easy choices!

4. Which historical figure would you like the Doctor to meet / which historical era would you like to see him travel to? (Historical can mean contemporary, too, if you wish.) I'd like more way ancient history or even pre-history. Go back and show the Hanging Towers of Babylon, or the Sumerians inventing writing, or Neanderthals. That would be cool!

5. If you could change one thing about one fandom you are currently in or would like to be in, what would it be? There are two related but not synonymous things that come to mind. I'd love Sherlock fandom to be something more than Sherlock/John. I don't have a problem with the existence of Sherlock/John and wouldn't want to get rid of it or anything. It just isn't really my thing and I want other things to exist and be easily findable rather than getting buried under, and sometimes attacked for not being, Sherlock / John. I'd ideally like more about the original Conan Doyle canon to make it into the fandom: discussions of how the show has played with various aspects of the canon, fanfic based on elements from the canon not yet seen in the show, etc.The related thing, which I'm not sure would help with the above problem but would certainly cut down on the drama of the fandom, and of Cabin Pressure fandom, and just make me feel better, would be to ban everyone who willingly and proudly self identifies as a Cumberbitch to their own little corner of the internet and not let them out to play with anyone else otherwise involved in any of the relevant fandoms.

Feeling: dirty

Exploring: Home, about to be shower after hiking and then doing very basic maintenance on the car & motorcycle

I agree on the Sherlock Fandom. One of the things I really like about the new adaption is the relationship between Sherlock and Mycroft (I do have a weakness for more or less messed up sibling-relationships...) and I'd love to see more fanfic/discussion about that but it also gets burried under everything else.

(Currently I'm also staying away from any Cabin Pressure-fandom discussions...I feel like I've listened to a completely different S4 because I don't understand how that could have created so much drama D:)

I've always loved the idea of Mycroft since I first read a Conan Doyle story with him and I love when the various pastiches play around with him. Sherlock (BBC) takes a very different approach to him but it is a completely believable one given the changes they've made to Sherlock's personality (or at least the aspects of it they choose to highlight) and age. I love it!

Your questions:

1) This seems to be the question of the meme in these circles so I have to ask: favorite Cabin Pressure episode (or top 3/5/whatever if you can't pick 1)?

The more I think about it, the more I love the idea of the Doctor hanging with the Sumerians. And the Neanderthals, but only if they do the Neanderthals based on the most recent research indicating they were intelligent and social not the old caveman stereotype.